Protests eased only af­ter CEO left for Delhi

Shashank had re­port­edly sought de­ploy­ment of ad­di­tional cen­tral armed po­lice forces and com­plained to the EC that for­mer prin­ci­pal sec­re­tary Lal­nun­mawia Chuaungo was in­ter­fer­ing with the poll process. Based on his re­port, EC had or­dered re­moval of Chuaungo, a Mizo and IAS of­fi­cer from Gu­jarat cadre.

The NGO Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee—a con­glom­er­ate of civil so­ci­eties and stu­dent or­gan­i­sa­tions—along with other po­lit­i­cal lead­ers had been de­mand­ing Shashank’s exit, who is seen as a Bru sym­pa­thiser, ever since. CM Lal Than­hawla had last week writ­ten to PM Modi seek­ing re­moval of the CEO, say- ing that “peo­ple (of Mi­zo­ram) state had lost faith in him”.

The NGO com­mit­tee had also de­manded that 11,232 Bru vot­ers lodged in six Tripura re­lief camps be al­lowed to ex­er­cise their fran­chise at their re­spec­tive polling sta­tions in Mi­zo­ram and not in Tripura as com­mit­ted by poll panel in 2014. The EC has also agreed to this de­mand. Polling in Mi­zo­ram is to be held on Novem­ber 28.

Thou­sands of peo­ple had protested and or­gan­ised pick­et­ing in front of CEO’s of­fice last week. Shashank has been camp­ing in Delhi since past 3-4 days. In fact, the protests eased af­ter the CEO left Mi­zo­ram. The nom­i­na­tion process picked up with over 200 nom­i­na­tions filed un­til the last date on Fri­day.